Socialinės tvarkos ir saugumo prielaidos mieste: aplinkos kriminologijos teorijų taikymo patirtis Vakaruose ir perspektyvos Lietuvoje
The Premises of Social Order and Security in the City: The Western Experience and Lithuanian Perspectives in Applying Theoretical Ideas of Environmental Criminology

Summary/Abstract: The article aims to show that the issue of city safety could be tackled through maintenance of physical and social order and through the wise urban planning besides the organized police efforts. City planners and architects should take an active part in this activity. Safety or the sense of safety is one of the most important components of quality of life. Nevertheless crime is not the only factor that determines them. The status of social order and the integrity of local community influence safety feelings too. Indeed crime is the manifestation of long lasting process of social disorganization. Therefore efforts to maintain social order and security should start as soon as first evidence of disorganization appears. The article presents the main ideas of environmental criminology and the range of space based criminological theories (namely, defensible space, crime prevention through environmental design, space syntax theory and etc.) that have started in the middle of XX th century in the West and are still popular now. They had influenced practice and make a core of current situational crime prevention. These theoretical approaches explain how physical environment and distribution of objects in the city space create or prevent crime and influence the safety of city inhabitants. These approaches do not explain the causes of crime but give recommendations how to control or prevent crime in various city spaces. Article also notes how safety criterions have been integrated into urban planning in some countries of North America and Europe. USA and United Kingdom are the most eminent among them. The evaluation of Lithuanian case showed that urban planning and security of safety are still separated spheres here. There is also little or no scientific discussion on the topics of interrelation of social and physical environment, urban planning and environmental design and crime and safety.

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